Black is the new Black
by BIFF1
Summary: Isaac/Erica tied together one shots for season two. Chapter three is up! Dereks away and the kids don't know what to do with themselves. Isaac/Erica with some pack bonding and Boyd being awesome. Rated T for language will eventualy go up.
1. Black is the new black

A/N: the start of a short mini series of one shots revolving around Erica and Isaac. Which frankly I'm going to post even if no one loves me because really there is like none of and non Sterek out there. I just love how broken these two are. Inspired by a wolfkink prompt I saw a while back. Does Derek just hand out a leather jacket with the bite?

**Black is the new Black:**

Derek's car is obviously not meant to carry more than two people but he's stuck in the almost nonexistent back seat anyway. Its worse than it should be because he won shotgun but was pushed into the back anyway.

'Your a fugitive.'

Fugitive sumugitive.

It's because Erica's hot now. Not that he had minded her so much before the whole werewolf thing. Derek no doubt thinks she'd look better next to him than he would.

Well that's bunk.

He has eyes, he can clearly see that he is not exactly unattractive, and he's seen Erica's eyes linger on him longer than needed.

And yet here he is, a shiny new werewolf, attractive, confident, powerful...stuck in the stupid plastic fold down seat that came out of the car wall behind Erica's seat.

Humiliation thy name is Isaac.

"Gum?" Erica asks her arm appearing with a pack of juicy fruit.

"Thanks." He grumbles and takes a piece. Settling into the too hot back seat, the breeze from the passenger window doing nothing to cool him, focusing on the strong smell the gum released with each bite he takes.

They drive passed the city lines, and into the next county where Isaac will be just some teenager and not a wanted man.

Erica keeps looking at the wallet in her hands. Her mother had given her free reign of the credit card for this little shopping trip. Pleased as punch that she was going out shopping with friends rather than working on yet another extra credit assignment. She feels a little bad that Isaac is stuffed into the back but the breeze and the smell of the forest they are riding through take most of that away.

She tries to change the radio stations but Derek smacks her hand away

"When you are the Alpha you get to pick the station." He tells her but it sounds more like never touch the radio again and despite the new bravado and power she's gained Derek still makes her feel weak. She doesn't like it, so she pushes herself against the car door and focuses on all the smells she can pick up from the woods.

"Are there bears in these woods?" She asks after a strong scent she has no idea why she recognizes hits her.

Derek slows the car down and rolls his window down all the way.

"Good job Erica, smells like a family...up wind...very good." He reaches over and pats her on the head.

He hates it but he flinched. He knew he flinched when Derek moved to pat her on the head, he just prays they didn't notice. Because he's stronger then that now, he's risking death at the hands of monsters and maniac hunters with arrows and knowledge not because he looks badass, but for the power it will give him so that he will never again be in that position again, okay looking badass certainly doesn't hurt.

What he can't help it, he's a teenager.

He smiles a little at the fact that Erica doesn't immediately push into Derek's touch that her grip on the door handle tightens briefly, because it means that she isn't exactly sure what Derek is capable of or which mood he'll switch too next either.

At least he isn't alone with him now.

He crunches down into the frail plastic chair, and stretched out his long legs across the car. There is plenty of leg room back here at least, and the smell of the woods drifting into the car on the wind is calming and the smell of Derek and Erica warms something in him.

They smell so different and somehow the same, like Pack.

He's been smelling nothing but Derek recently, he smells of blood and earth and an aftershave he hasn't been able to locate in the 'den'. Erica is a welcome change, she too smells of earth but wet earth and delicate white flowers and honey and christ he is sure she shouldn't smell as good as she does.

He wonders briefly if all girls smell this good and she's just the first one he's been close to since his change.

Derek has never been an Alpha before, obviously, but he hasn't been around one in years either so frankly he has pretty much no idea what to do. To make matters worse as a born wolf at least half the things he knows they are struggling with have never been strange to him. He can teach them to fight, he knows how to do that, and he thinks he can help them get a handle on some of the new stronger senses but he has no idea how to make them feel like PACK. To feel that warmth and calm of being in a pack, being stronger together they understand but they are family now and he wants them to feel welcome and he has no idea what to do.

So he's taking them shopping. Something he remembers doing with his Pack, with his family. And frankly if they are going to be riding with him they have got to step up there game, because what they have worn today is just not going to fly.

He glances in the rear view and sees that Isaac has finally relaxed, his hair is fluffy and his skin is clear and bright and the jeans are fine, dark and fitting but he is wearing a t-shirt with the teenage mutant ninja turtles on it and a baggy zip up and he reminds him far to much of Stiles.

Erica is no better, her jeans are too loose and cuffed and she's wearing worn out high tops that he thinks at one point had been red like its 1954 or something. She's wearing a plaid button up over a black tank top, the loose plaid hiding most of her body. Her skin is bright and her hair is a fluffy wavy wild mess that he enjoys but her body is great, has most likely always been great and he refuses to have her hide it, when its obvious to everyone in the car but Erica that there is nothing to be worried about.

She's only ever been to the mall with her father before and once with her mother when she had to buy a training bra.

They would always start at the food court, get a snack, maybe a milkshake, grab what was on the shopping list and then see a movie. She wondered how different it would be going with 'friends'.

"I'm hungry." Derek told them and started off towards the food court.

Not very different at all apparently.

Girls were looking at them, well they were looking at Derek. And she could hear way too much of there quiet conversations with one another.

She was sure she was starting to blush because fuck these girls were saying dirty things.

"What's the matter?" Isaac asked quietly, his hand hovering at the small of her back as they weaved through a particularly busy section of the mall towards the food court.

"The girls,"she whispered, "can't you hear them...it's vulgar."

Isaac couldn't help but laugh softly, because honestly he hadn't heard all the girls fawn and apparently lust after Derek, because he had been too busy glaring holes through the boys that were making the sex smell towards Erica.

How could she not notice it?

This was going to be awful.

"Thai?" Derek suggested, lining up for the thai place anyway.

He sighed, all they ever had was Thai, what was Derek's thing with thai, he would have half a jungle prince curry, sigh and mention new york's food and then finish the curry looking put upon. Yet every other night he came back to the 'den' with General Thao.

"I kinda want some fries and a milkshake." He told Derek thoroughly expecting nothing to come of it, after all he had no money, Derek was the only reason he hadn't died of exposure so far.

"Oooo yeah!" Erica's hair bounced in front of his face and he had to bite his lip to keep from taking a deep stalkery breath.  
She turned around and placed a hand on his chest, a smile on her face that was soft and not at all the all teeth wolfy grin she had been sporting as of late.

He liked it.

"My treat." She declared and grabbing hold of his hand started off towards the appropriate stall.

Oh my god Oh my god Oh my god

She chanced a look back just to make sure.

Yep.

Oh my god!

She was holding a boys hand.

She hadn't thought that much about it when she had grabbed a hold of him but holy crap he was holding her hand back.

There was mutual hand holding happening here.

She blamed his smell.

He smelt spectacular.

Like mud and freshly cut grass and humid summer evenings. She could smell graves and machine grease on him faintly but the heavy scents of his imprisonment with his father were slowly fading. He smelt of mud and grass and death and she knew that was what he smelt of but honestly she could have stood next to him forever breathing that in.

His fingers tightened on her and she wondered if he could hear her heart thump wildly.

"One large curly fry and a... medium chocolate shake, and..." She turned to him and found he was incredibly close to her. Clearing her throat she continued, doing her best not to back away like she was scared, like his closeness wasn't doing anything to her, "what do you want."

"Did you want to share the fries?" He asked not taking his eyes off the menu, scanning the milkshake choices.

"Yeah that's what I always did with my..dad." She finished and looks away from him finding the zipper of her wallet suddenly very interesting.

"I'll have a medium caramel shake. Thanks." He adds and squeezes her hand before letting it go.

They are ridiculous.

Derek can hear there rapid heartbeats from his seat across the food court, can hear every word said and smell them.

They are ridiculous and nervous but they're his.

They belong to him, and he will take care of them, even if it means watching them flounder around trying not to like each other, even if it means feeding them and letting them hide behind him.

Because he may make them stronger but they make him whole.

There's a warmth in his gut as he watched Isaac take the tray and mumble thank you's and complain about only ever eating thai food. A warmth he's sure is PACK and Family and he smiles as Erica trips a little because she's focusing so hard on not looking at Isaac.

They are adorable.

They are pack.

They are his.

And they are horribly dressed.

Which will end as soon as he's had his fill of thai curry.

"No"

"No?"

"I think it looks great."

"No."

She sighed heavily and went back into the changing room.

She looked at herself in the mirror, she had never had the guts to wear a sun dress before. It was a light blue and had a black ribbon around the waist and she loved it. She looked good, her boobs for once seemed to know what they were supposed to be doing and her legs went on forever.

Putting a hand on the mirror she sighed again and began to take off the dress.

'Why can't she get that one? She looks great.'

Her ears pricked, it was Isaac.

'She needs to look powerful not cute.'

Derek's voice twisted on cute.

'She is powerful, it has nothing to do with what she looks like.'

There was silence for a moment and she could smell fear and knew Derek had brought out his red eyed Alpha dominance.

She pulled on the next outfit, one Derek had picked and she had to admit, there was definitely a different feeling to the animal print and leather.

She opened the door and sauntered out.

Okay maybe Derek was right, because not only did Erica look great she looked like if you denied her what she asked she would rip out your oesophagus and wear it as a belt.

"That I'll buy you." Derek told her a smirk gracing his features.

A smirk.

That was about as close to a smile he expected Derek ever got.

"Now go pick out some jeans that'll fit you like you don't know who The Big Bopper is." Derek shooed her away.

'Whose The big bopper?'

They heard her whisper to herself and Derek actually laughed.

It was small and mostly just throat noise but it was definitely a laugh.

He felt like he should alert the media.

_Beep beep beep beep beep  
_

_Newsflash!  
_

_Derek Hale's heart grows three sizes! Now capable of laughter!  
_

_Beep beep beep beep beep_

"What are you smiling about? It's your turn."

And like that the newsbulletin music is replaced with a death march.

Who the hell is the Big Bopper and what does he have to do with pants?

She's freaking out more than a little because this is the first thing the Alpha has asked of her and she has no idea what to do.

She looks around.

No ones around.

She listens really hard and can hear Derek and Isaac discussing leather.

She's in the clear.

She takes her phone out.

Ring

Ring

"Is everything okay? Do you need me to pick you up? What happened?" Her father rambles off nervously.

"No dad, everything's fine...it's just..."

"What is it pumpkin?"

A warmth spreads in her, and its the same warmth that coats her insides when Derek is around. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realizes that that feeling must be family.

She sighs, "Whose the big bopper?"

There's laughter on the other end and it takes a moment for her father to school his laughter enough to answer her.

As her dad talks about the 1950's musician she looks over to her cuffed straight legged jeans and understands.

"I have some of his music at home, you can hear him when you get home okay?"

"Okay dad thanks."

It's cute that she calls her father for answers. She understands the importance of family and goes to them when in trouble.

Derek just wonders how long it will take for those feelings of family to encompass Isaac and himself as well. With the hunters having declared war, he hopes its soon because he's going to need all the help he can get to survive this, and he knows Scott will be no help. No willing help anyway.

Perhaps it would have been different is Scott craved any sort of power, if he felt the hollow of being alone in the world.

Needed the power like he knew Isaac did, felt that hollow like Erica.

Isaac flinched again. Someone had made a sudden movement too close to him.

It pulled something tight in his chest every time he noticed.

and he noticed every time.

He watched Isaac out of the corner of his eye, watched as he browsed the shirts, all solid darker colors as he had been told, like a good Beta. He prefers to watch Isaac out of the corner of his eyes, because Isaac seems to somehow get smaller when Derek looks directly at him. Seems to get paper thin and ghostly. Like he's trying with every fibre of his being to just disappear.

Its getting better thou, slowly but definitely better, he's noticed less flinching the more he trains.

The more powerful he feels.

and the more Erica's around.

Isaac visibly straightens, coming to his full height, and he seems somehow more solid.  
and then he smells it.

Crayons and spruce and he's reminded of colouring books and candy apples, of family.

It's Erica.

He knows without looking because she smells like a little sister. Sometimes when he smells her first before seeing her like when she's coming around a corner he's almost surprised that Laura doesn't come flouncing around the corner. Sometimes it hurts and seems to ring something in the hollow of him, but sometimes just the smell of her, the smell of sister fills just a little part of the hollow.

He can tell by just how solid Isaac seems to become that she must not smell like sister to him.

Isaac runs a hand through his thick hair and Derek can hear some girls giggling and talking about him from the other side of the store.

Isaac has already changed when he smells her again, he's wearing a Derek approved dark blue shirt and black leather jacket all of which seem to fit in such a way that he looks brooding and fit and powerful.

Dark and dangerous and he likes it.

He feels like James bond, he feels dangerous and powerful and he's sure no one would mess with him now.

"That's so much better." Derek concedes his features light possibly even happy, "no more looking like a sidekick for you."

Something blooms inside Isaac that confuses him at first, his chest feels full, and his heart and breathing are calm. The smell of new leather and Derek and little white flowers in his nose.

Good god, it's happiness, real honest to god happiness, not a temporary lull of safety and calm that used to come when his father was gone but something all encompassing and it feels fucking amazing.

Isaac actually smiles.

Erica comes round the corner and is amazed. Isaac is smiling and holy crap it's spectacular. In fact she can hear her heart pick up and she's sure that they can hear it because they look directly at her and then Isaac looks around as if he's looking for the cause. Derek however just looks between then and the ghost of a smile flits across his face because he knows exactly whats going on here.

Isaac is hot.

She had always thought he might have been if somethings had been different, and she's right, because things are different and he's setting parts of her skin on fire just by looking.

She knows she's been looking at him in silence too long when a blush starts to rise in his checks.

Too quickly she turns her head away a flip of thick wavy blond hiding her face from him. Her face is red, she just knows it and the smell of him is doing things to her far from the calm of PACK that Derek's always on about.

When Scott is back in PACK, when he's a Beta again and no longer an Omega, he will "give" Erica to Isaac.

She makes him stronger, more solid, maybe even gives him that warmth of belonging that he wants them so desperately to understand.  
He somehow makes her softer. The hard jagged edges of her smooth out and smudge. Stronger and more at home in her skin.

They would serve each other so much good that thoughts of abandoning his plan have crossed his mind a couple times.

But then he remembers what Allison is, who she is, he remembers Kate and the fire and is determined to keep Scott from that fate.

There's bright red in Erica's arms and it's painful to his eyes.

he doesn't like it whatever it is.

He picks a piece of it up and discovers the feel of leather under his grip.

"What is this." his voice comes out low and rumbling and he can see it rip through her body and in the corner of his eye he can see Isaac shrink.

He had to calm down, had to relax, but something about the red was bleeding into his vision.

"the sales lady said red was the new black." Erica whispered, her shoulders hunched and her eyes down cast.

"Black is the new Black." he told her. He meant for it to be firm but it came out as a growl, deep and rumbling and violent.

All he saw was red.

When his vision cleared, he had the red jacket in his hands, rips in the material were his fingers were. And Erica and Isaac were on the floor.

"shit."

He bought them ice cream. She knew he was apologizing for his little Alpha freak out, but she still felt ice cold. She and Isaac sat on one side of the table from Derek, like scolded kids. Derek's mouth opened several times but nothing came out, the regret is radiating from him, she knows he is sorry but she can't quite look at him.

Her eyes are glued to the bag beside Derek. It has her clothes in it and she can see the blue and black of the sun dress.

Something moves under the table, she can sense its movement.

It's Isaac.

His hand grabs hers, he wriggles his fingers in between hers and she can hear his heart slow down, feel him settle.

Her hand is warm and a little clammy but having it wrapped in his does something to his body, calms it.

He understands Derek's obsession with PACK a little more because a warmth has settled over him, like a blanket, the same warmth and safety he used to feel with his brother, that he used to feel before his mothers death, this has to be the family that Derek has been trying to show him.

She tightens her grip on him and it pulls a smile from his mouth.

Derek lets out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Isaac is smiling and Erica finally looks him in the eye again. Temporarily they are PACK, they are family, but the link is still weak, they need one more.

"There needs to be three." he tells them, hoping that they'll understand.

"What about Scott?" Erica asks and Isaac's smile falls.

"He's an Omega now," he sweeps the idea away. He knows that Scott won't rejoin PACK until it serves him.

A smile pushes back into Isaac's face, meaner than before, somehow more violent, "I know someone."


	2. Fatalities & close calls

A/n: This one was brought about by a sudden need to play mortal kombat and not write the story my friend was waiting for. Enjoy

"Aren't you going out tonight?" Her mother asks the confusion rings in her voice as she looks down at the pasta she's made. It's clearly only for two and the candlesticks have been pulled out of the basement and placed on the table and since it's not a holiday Erica is sure that this dinner is not meant for her.

She reaches past her mother for a bag of popcorn.

"I'm going out later."

"Oh did you want to watch something with Dad and I?" She asks and her eyes dart to the candlesticks and then quickly back to her daughter. Even if Erica didn't have above average instincts she'd still be able to tell that her mother didn't want her there.

Which was fine with her, because she could hear the scrapping of her bedroom window open and the soft thuds of feet on the carpet above her head.

"No thanks, I'm going to be in my room." She smiles briefly and grabs a couple cans of coke.

She notices an eyebrow raise on her mothers face.

Erica just smiles, a knowing smirking grin of a thing as she raises up the two cans, "don't want to interrupt anything."

Her mothers face flushes and she sputters but no actual words come out, at least English words anyway and Erica takes her leave, dashing up the stairs two at a time and almost wolfing out as she dives into her room.

She lands on her back watching the door close.

"Took you long enough." Isaac holds out a hand to help her up. She stares at it for a moment and then puts the cold can of coke in it.

"Your lucky I even let you in here fugitive." She smiles, rolls over and pushes herself up. She can hear Isaac scoff behind her followed by the dull thud of his body hitting the bed.

She turns a little to look as she crawls around the bed to the television.

It never ceases to amaze her how at home he looks on her bed.

He is the first boy that's ever even seen her room, at least the first boy who wasn't a blood relative anyway.

"You okay?" He asks and his voice rings through her.

"I'm fine..." But they both know she's lieing, her heart is a rabbit thumping out a message that he can hear perfectly.

"Are you dazzled by my brilliance, my classical bone structure?" He runs his fingers along his high cheekbones and honestly that is just not fair. He's not exactly wrong thou and he must be able to tell because a grin pulls on his face.

"Do you want to play a video game or not?" She huffs flicking the PlayStation on. She throws a controller at him and is more than a little disappointed when he snatches it out of the air with ease.

"Mor!tal Kom!bat!" He 'sings' with the video game music and it is loud, too loud and she is amazed that she hears the sudden silence downstairs and the soft thuds of her mothers footfalls on the stairs over it...or maybe under it?

"Shut your mouth moron!" She yelps and dives for him her hands clamped firmly on his mouth. Her eyes on the bottom of the door.

Her body is on top of him spread along his length and she doesn't even notice until along with her mothers footsteps she starts to hear the loud frantic thumping of his heart.

She swears and rolls away from him in time for him to dive under the bed.

The door opens up and her mothers face is wrinkled in confusion.

"Huh, I thought I had heard..." She shrugs, "everything okay up here?" Her eyes wander around the room and Erica praises the lord that only one coke is cracked on her nightstand and that her controller is still on the floor between the bed and the TV out of sight.

"Yeah, just going to play mortal kombat." Erica's smile falters because there is something cold on her leg and she is sure that it's Isaac's hand. He's

trying to screw with her, she's sure it's become his favourite pastime.

"Well okay then, do you know when your going out?"

She shrugs, "probably not till 8." Her voice hitches as his slender fingers draw long slow lines on her leg.

Her mother just nods and retreats, closing the door behind her. She's stone still while she waits to hear something happen downstairs.

"You are so bad at being stealthy. It's embarrassing." She grumbles kicking away his hand and sliding off the bed to sit with him on the floor.

He slides out from under the bed a sock stuck in his hair.

She's got her hand pressed firmly onto her mouth, because its the bright pink sock with neon green palm trees on it she's been looking for for years and

it's sitting on his curly hair like a crown.

"What?"

She reaches out a hand to pull the offending sock from him, he watches confused as her arm goes by his face, he turns to look at her and she is unbelievably close, so close she is sure that he can smell her detergent as she can smell the grease of the metro train on his skin.  
His skin is smooth and looks incredibly soft and fragile like if she blew on it he would crumble and she can't help herself she let's her wrist slid along his cheek.

A heartbeat rang in her ears, quick and heavy and wasn't sure if it was his or hers.

"Sock..." She whispers as she notices that Isaac's face is really rather close to hers. She shows him the violently coloured thing a nervous smile on her face.

She can hear him swallow, thick and slow, as he turns his head back to the television and it boisterous theme.

"You can't be Sonja this time," he tells her pulling his controller off the bed, "it's not a fair fight."

She can't help but smile, there isn't any character she could pick that would make it a fair fight. Isaac is a button mashing rookie, while she had spent more time with the characters in her games then with people.

She chooses to randomize.

"Scorpion!"

"Kitana!"

Of course he picks Kitana, its the only character that he knows any of the special moves for. Its just to bad for him that Scorpion is her second favourite fighter.

"Come over here!"

"No! No! No no no! Block you stupid bitch!"

Isaac is sitting at the oddest angle, his arms fully outstretched and smashing the block button.

Erica is executing a perfectly calm fatality when she heard the sudden silence down stairs.

"God damn it Isaac." She hisses. She throws her controller down, but it's too late for Isaac's character the background has already gone black.  
She grabs onto Isaac's shirt and half throws him into the open closet.

He's confused but he slides the door partially closed anyway.

"Erica!" The door bursts open, her mother's eyes wide as she scans the room, "what's going on up here?" She walks fully into the room eyeing her daughter and the slowly moving bed skirt.

"Ah ha!" She yells as she drops to the ground to look under the bed.

Erica praises everything holy that her mother can't here her heartbeat or Isaac's for that matter because they are both as frantic and loud as an amateur drum-line.

She will not look at the closet, she won't, she will not. She watches her mother and raises an eyebrow, "what on earth are you doing?"

"I heard a boy, I swear I heard a boy." Her mother tells her eyes sweeping the room for anything that will tell her she isn't going insane.

"Mom, do you really think I'd have a guy up here?" She was pretty impressed with how forlorned she sounded about the whole thing. Like she thought she couldn't even force a boy up here.

She knew her mother believed her when her face softened, "Erica...sugar muffin..."

_"Sugar muffin?"_

She bit her lip she could hear Isaac whisper as if he was yelling in her ear.

She tried to focus on her mother as she sat on the edge of her bed watched as she slowly reached for her.

"That's not why you've started dressing differently is it?"

"No..."

"Because having the confidence to dress this way is great as long as that's really what this is."

"It is..."

Isaac was oddly silent, his heartbeat had slowed and his breathing was quiet and slow.

"Okay sweets, because you are a smart pretty girl," her mother reached out and smoothed some of her hair down. Erica pushed into her hand, she smelt of olive oil and lilacs.

"I know mom."

"I'm not just saying this because your my little button either okay."

_"Button?"_ There was an incredibly soft snicker from the closet.

"I just want to make sure you don't feel pressured to dress like this."

"That's not why mom honest." And a sincerity that she hadn't heard in her own voice in far too long rang out, "the boys I like, don't like me anyway."

She was digging deep for that one through years of being ignored and snubbed and the worst of all the time she had asked Stiles Stilinski to the junior formal and he had handed her his copy of the chem notes. He hadn't even listened enough to properly reject her.

And apparently her mother knew exactly where this was coming from because her soft hand was on her face, "is this about the sheriff's boy again?"

_"Stiles!"_ Isaac's voice was surely too loud that time, she watched her mothers eyes flick up to the closet before resting on her again.

"No mom I'm over Stiles."

"If you say so sugar muffin."

Erica cringed, "mom!" She whined and it came out a little more like an actual dog whine than was probably safe.

Her mother held up her hands in surrender, "I know, I know, not pet names. Is that why you won't bring any boys home? Your afraid we'll embarrass you?"

"That's not why."

"Because it's our jobs to embarrass you. It's our reward for dealing with diapers and cleaning up throw up."

_"You should bring home Boyd," Isaac offered, "he'd be good with your parents. He seems the type. Or of course you could coerce Stiles, he's pretty soft."  
_

"When there's a boy I'll bring him home. I promise okay?"

"Okay, I know the first boy you let into your Fortress of Solitude is going to be important. I'll be downstairs if you need anything." Her mother placed a soft kiss on her forehead and took her leave.

A few minutes later Isaac came tumbling out of the closet, his face flushed.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm not just okay, I'm important," he reached out and poked the tip of her nose, "_Button._"

"If you tell a soul I will rip your throat out with my teeth."

His smile faltered and he turned away from her picking his controller back up, "You're spending too much time with Derek."


	3. Mystery Date

A/n: sorry this took so long, I'm writing them in my phone while on the bus to work and the ideas come to me kinda out of order. Hope you like it. I'm getting a lot of follows and not a lot of reviews which is confusing and kinda sad, i miss the reviews, the long ones, and the short ones and the ones that are like oh my god this sentence here! So good. I want to know that you get the feels like I do. So I actually have all the chapters finishes except one. I was thinking I'd upload all the other chapters on mondays.

**Mystery Date**

Its the first time they've been left alone without Derek and there not sure if its a good thing or not.

He's there Alpha, the big bossman, their centre and without him they all secretly wonder if they're still PACK.

"Should we do something?" Boyd asks his low voice unsure.

None of them have ever really been very social for one reason or another and now even with Erica and Isaac's new wolfy confidence they are a pretty awkward group.

Sitting rather quietly in the abandoned subway car two of the three wondering if they should just leave, one stuck there for what feels like eternity.

"Like what?" Isaac asked quietly although both notice that the quake that used to be so strong in his voice has almost entirely gone.

Erica shrugs looking past the pale brunette to the pile of textbooks behind him. He's already done all the work that she brought for him, at least when he's exonerated and goes back to school he won't be behind.

"Boardgame?" She supplies but almost immediately wants to take it back, what a terribly nerdy thing to suggest, she is sure she's lost all of her cool new werewolf cred when Boyd nods.

"I could play a boardgame."

Her heart lightens and a small smile pushes the wolfy overconfidence out of her face.

"Well there are none here..." Isaac informs them leaning forward in a broken bench seat crossing his arms over the back of the seat in front.

"I have a bunch at my house..." Erica tells them, "me and Boyd-"

"Boyd and I." Isaac corrects quietly.

"_Me and Boyd_," she starts again putting more emphasis on the incorrect grammar, "could go pick some up, snacks and things too."

Boyd is nodding totally fine with this idea, he gets up from his seat by the door, "is there anything you need while were out?" He asks as Erica flounces past him.

Isaac looks shifty for a moment, "a... flashlight..." He shrugs as if its not that big a deal, but even now with most of the lights on, and some sun coming through the high grimy window its still pretty dark in here.

"Sure man." He nods and exits following Erica up the ladder, wondering briefly how there going to get all that stuff down safely and easily...a pulley system might be a good idea, maybe they should stop by the hardware store on the way back.

.

Boyd is surprised at how normal Erica's house is, no secret torture basement here, just home cooking smells, wood panel and slightly outdated shag carpeting.

"Your back early!" A female voice, warm and motherly, yells from the open study door.

"Boyd and I came to grab some boardgames!" Erica yells back stepping out of her shoes.

He can't help but smile, Isaac would be so proud so of course she turns to look at him with narrow eyes that clearly tell him not to say a thing.

"Whose Boyd?" A male voice chimes in from the kitchen at the end of the wood panelled hall.

"A friend from school!" She yelled back and then turned to Boyd and whispered, "I've already told them I was hanging out with you tonight...I'm not hiding you or anything..."

"Just Isaac." He smirks.

"Well yeah. Can you see that going well?"

They are laughing quietly together and it warms something in his core that had previously been untouched. This must be what its like to have friends.

They leave shortly after but not before Boyd has met both her parents and they have been laden with piping hot leftovers.

.

He's already read The Catcher in the Rye twice and done all the questions Erica had brought him. He's lying on the ground outside the car with the novel over his face, page marked in chapter three yet again when he smells them come back.

They smell good, Boyd like fresh ice, Erica little white flowers and honey and they smell of PACK, a calming smell he loves.

He sits up quickly because they also smell like food. Has he gotten so hungry for real food that he's gone delirious and wants to eat them?! No! Isaac tries to do that breathing exercise Derek taught him to keep the wolf hunger down, but god they smell so good, like homemade meat loaf and mashed potatoes with gravy.

"Some help?!" Boyd yells from the top of the ladder.

Biting his lip he goes to the bottom of the ladder to catch whatever it is he as to.

Its a rope?

Peering up into the dim he can see that Boyd has stretched himself out dangerously far securing a pulley?

Minutes later Boyd and Isaac are happily sending things down in a large metal pale.

A random selection of boardgames that rattle with loose pieces, a freshly laundered blanket, a flashlight, a six pack of cola, a couple bags of chips and a bunch of steaming glass containers and cutlery.

Isaac let out a breath that everyone heard but didn't care. The heavenly smell was coming from the containers he wasn't delirious, he didn't want to eat his pack.

"What's this?" He asked lifting the piping hot container out of the bucket.

"My dad's homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes and honey carrots." Erica tells him and her voice is like heavenly choirs and harp music because christ that's the best thing he thinks he's heard in his entire life.

"I love you." He whispered and no one is sure if he's talking to Erica or the tupperwear he's cradling but she's blushing anyway and Boyd is finding his new pulley system incredibly interesting.

.

"So what does Derek feed you?" Boyd asks pulling out the pieces of Mystery date.

"Rabbit mostly... And some thai take away." Isaac tells him through a mouth full of mashed potatoes.

"We can play a different game-" Erica is scrambling to put the pieces of her mom's old Mystery Date game back into the box but every piece she puts in Boyd pulls back out, "I just grabbed the ones on the top..."

"You mean you don't want to go to the big formal with..." Isaac looks at the card squinting to read the writing under the boy in the tux, "Dexter? Ugh that's a terrible name." He puts the card back into the pile it belongs in.

"I don't know, I think I'd rather go on the picnic date." Boyd responds shuffling the deck.

.

They end up playing five rounds of Mystery Date before Erica rage quits, Isaac wins twice and Boyd three times, and the board is now upside down and pieces and cards are everywhere.

She hates this game.

"I hate this game." She grumbles trying to drown her sorrows in cola.

"No you hate losing," Isaac tells her, "there's a difference." His voice is serious but he's smiling. There is no quake in his voice now, and its not just masked by the wolfy bravado this time. It feels good being together, calming, comforting, oddly powerful and lazy all at once. It's the belonging they all craved, secretly or not, and they are family now.

"Do you think Derek would play boardgames with us?" Erica asks pulling out the scrabble board. Pushing the debris of her mothers ancient game out of the way.

"Maybe after the hunters are gone..." Isaac ponders aloud and a chill goes through them all.

The hunters.

None of them know much about them, other than what Derek told them before they agreed to turn. They are a family, a large family, that is out to kill them and they are at war.

War.

Unconsciously they all huddle in closer to each other, creating a semi circle around the board, knees and elbows bumping into each other, but the comfort of the feeling of PACK is a thousand times more important than being able to hide there tiles from each other.

.

One ridiculously long scrabble game later filled with swear words and the occasional scientific term (Boyd swears that Achlorhydria is a real word), Erica's phone alarm went off.

"I have to go home..." Erica said reluctantly pushing away from the pack and feeling an instant hollow.

Isaac was looking down at the board moving the letters around, and she could smell the loneliness on him. It was a scent that sunk her stomach and froze her skin.

"Hey, I can stay." Boyd pushed Isaac kindly and laughed softly when he ended up upending both Isaac and the board.

Laughing Isaac clung onto the now slightly torn scrabble board and held it up for Boyd to see, "this is why we can't have nice things."

"I thought that was why we can't have nice things." Boyd pointed at Erica's feet, she had unknowingly stepped on the Mystery date game.

Isaac and Boyd burst out into roaring laughter as a bright red blush flooded Erica's face.

.

Its not until their tenth round of broken mystery date that Boyd brings up the topic of Erica.

"So what's with you and Erica?"

"What?" Isaac looks up from his cards so quickly he almost loses them all. He can feel a heat in his face that is just screaming things he'd rather not talk about.

"You." Boyd picks up the little blue marker and shakes it for emphasis, "and Erica." He fishes the pink marker out of the box and makes it do a little dance in the air.

"There's nothing going on." Isaac doesn't even look Boyd in the eyes for that one.

"Ah huh... And Scott's an existentialist."

"He could be."

"Dude, I like Scott but he couldn't even spell existentialism." Boyd makes the two markers kiss in a surprising display of immaturity. Honestly Isaac thinks he likes immature Boyd best. The one that hoards cards and wins multiple games of Mystery date, the one that smiles.

"I don't know what's up with me and Erica."

"_Erica and I_." Boyd corrects and the smirk breaking out across his face is ridiculous and taunting and he kind of wants him to do it all the time even if it means correcting his grammar (which honestly isn't that great to begin with but it doesn't take much to be better than Erica.)

"Erica and I." He grumbles and the heat in his face has lessened thankfully.

"She likes you." Boyd tells him simply, putting the markers back where they belong.

"I don't know." All the bravado and confidence that Isaac usually hides behind just falls off him and Boyd is left looking across the board at a boy who honestly has no idea.

Possibly about anything.

"I think she likes Stiles." And there's something all knowing about the way he says it that it seems somehow more believable that someone would like Stiles.

"Stiles? As in the attention deficit sidekick?"

Isaac shrugged, "Honestly I don't understand how they're still alive."

Boyd puts his hand of cards down between them and proceeds to casually win the game.

"Erica likes you. I'd put money on it." Boyd looks up at Isaac looks right into the unsure blue and hopes he's driving the point home because he doesn't bet on losers.


	4. Walk to School

A/N: thanks to seahaven for being so quick about getting back to me. So it's been so long between updates but I've been a lot worse in the past so...yeah...enjoy

Black is the new black: walk to school

She stops at Boyd's place first.

A jumping happy feeling bubbling in her that helps her bounce up the front steps of the small house.  
It looks like a house a grandma would live in, and she kind of loves it even if Boyd seems oddly ashamed of the old house.  
He really has nothing to worry about. I mean, her house still has shag carpeting and wood paneling and Isaac, well his old house had a torture chamber in the basement and his new 'house' is an abandoned subway station.

She knocks briskly on the door, this is the first time that she's walked _him_to school, normally Boyd shows up about a block from her house, at the end of the street and they walk on to school together like it was a happy accident but today is a special day.

Today is the day Isaac can come back to school, this is the day that he's no longer on the lam and she wants them to walk to school together.

Like a family.

The door opens and an old man opens it, she's seen him before, he manages the ice rink. She used to figure skate there until she had a seizure during practice.

"Yes?" He asks his voice is deep and heavy like Boyd's and one of his eyebrows has risen in confusion.

"I'm looking for Boyd?" She leans her head to the side to see past grandpa boyd to look into the gloom of the house.

"Erica?" It's Boyd calling quietly from upstairs somewhere.

"Really?"

"Yes sir." She nods and smiles.

"What the hell are you doing here?" His voice is flustered and she thinks it's adorable; she somehow managed to fluster the unshakable Boyd. She's actually kind of proud and she can't wait to tell Isaac.

"I thought that we could walk to school together."

The old man's eyebrow rises again but a sigh escapes his lips as he turns away from the door.

"Boyd! Your girlfriend's here to pick you up!"

"I'm not-"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Boyd yells down the stairs, almost wolfing out in his effort to get down the narrow staircase as quickly as possible.

"Uh huh." The old man doesn't even turn around to look at Boyd, he just continues down the narrow hall to what appears to be the kitchen, "don't forget you have to go to the pharmacy after school."

"I know." Boyd's face looks nervous.

"Drop off the pills at the rink before you go out tonight."

"I will." His words are firm and strong and almost too hot for a conversation about an errand for your grandfather.

He basically pushes her down the steps and closes the door firmly behind him.

"What are you doing here?" He's not yelling, she's not sure that Boyd is capable of yelling but his words are hot and firm and they're shaking something in the core of her.

"I'm picking you up..." The words come out of her mouth thick and broken and she turns sharply away from him.

She can smell his apology in the air before he even opens his mouth.

They walk in an oddly uncomfortable silence to the end of the block, and turn the corner. The house is no longer in their view.

"I'm sorry I was sharp with you." He puts a heavy hand on her puffy hair and she knows that everything is fine again.

Honestly she doesn't understand why he was like that, it's not his fault that the house smells of death, it's bound to happen when you live with old people.

"If there's something wrong you can talk to me." She tells him quietly and smiles softly when Boyd laces his fingers with her own, his hand is warm against hers and settles the bubbling excitement pushing at her. She swallows a lump in her throat and closes her eyes, "You're my best friend." She tells him, waiting for his hand to fall from hers, waiting for his rejection. Best friends are only something she's seen from the outside, that she knows exist purely because of TV and books

"Same." He tells her equally quiet, "we can talk later." He promises and squeezes her hand, "now let's go pick up the reason you're so excited today."

.

They talk about nothing on the way to pick up Isaac and it's his favourite topic... well besides money. The comfort of her hand, small and cool inside his settles him.

He's pretty sure he loves her, not the same way he knows Isaac does. His blood doesn't burn and boil for her, his heart doesn't speed up, it's not hard to breath. In fact she has the opposite effect; she makes everything slow down and become calm. She's like fresh air, or that first deep breath after you brush your teeth, makes you feel clean and somehow right with the world. She washes away the smell of death in his nose, the smell of his mother, wipes away if only for a little while the fact that his mother, despite the drugs, is not getting any better.

Maybe today he'll actually tell her about his mother, about how the cancer is wrapped around her like a snake, maybe he'll let her see her, see her dim eyes and her laboured breathing.

Derek is the only one whose seen her, he had begged him to come because she smelled wrong and he didn't know what it was.

Death.

Maybe he'll tell them both because they are family and the tighter Erica holds his hand the more he believes it. He won't tell her now, not when she's so happy and filled with the excitement of a small child, not when there's a bounce to her step like this.

"So, what's with you and Isaac?" He asks the back of her head, she's a little quicker than him.

"I..wha...what are you talking about?" She stutters and turns to look at him, her skin is flushed and she's biting the inside of her lip, like he wouldn't notice

"You know exactly what I'm talking about." Her hand slips from his and finds its way into her pocket. She's nervous; he can hear her heartbeat pick up a step.

"Nope, no idea."

"Uh huh..." He rolls his eyes, they are both impossible. This is the problem with people who used to be invisible he figures, they can never really believe that people can see them. Even with Erica having the entire male population of the high school and some of the girls panting for her she still can't quite believe, "He likes you." He tells her plainly because no matter how much he's starting to like Isaac as a person Erica is his best friend.

"No." She tells him simply, "now shut up or he'll hear you were almost there."

"You are impossible."

"Maybe." She turns and smiles at him, soft and loving and it melts parts of him, "but you love me anyway!" She exclaims and throws herself at him.  
She snakes her way onto his back, "Forward!" she yells, pointing to the end of the street, Boyd has his arms around her securing her to his back and with a laughing sigh he continues on to pick up Isaac.

.

He's not sure if he's nervous or excited, he has been out of school for weeks and chances are he's really behind, in spite of doing the readings and exercises that Boyd and Erica brought him. On top of that he's going to school to kill someone.

The kanima.

Lydia Martin.

"Do you have everything?" Derek asks for the twentieth time.

"Yes." Isaac sighs but double checks anyway because Derek is pacing. It's the Derek he doesn't like them to see but he likes this one best, the one that worries over if he has all his textbooks or not.

"Do you need lunch money?" He's already taking out his wallet and searching for an appropriately sized bill. He's already given him forty bucks at this rate he'll be able to take Boyd and Erica out for pizza, so he doesn't say anything when Derek hands him another twenty, just a quiet 'thank you'.

"They're here to pick you up." Derek tells him and there is a certain softness in his voice that Isaac tries really hard to memorise.

He can hear them too, laughing and talking about nothing.

"Okay, I'll be close by." He tells him and once again his voice goes hard and the 'if you need me' and the 'have a good day at school' are left unspoken and hanging in the air between them.

He nods curtly and leaves.

The cool morning air feels great. It's been awhile since he's been out during the day, out without Derek.

It feels good and free.

He turns a corner to meet Erica and Boyd and his body freezes, his heart stops. Boyd is giving Erica a piggyback ride.

"Am I interrupting something?" He raises an eyebrow and hikes up the strap of his backpack. He's really rather pleased with how cold and cool he sounds.

Erica slides down Boyd's back and her feet barely touch the ground, she's bouncing towards him. She flings her arms around his neck. He stumbles backwards for a moment, the entire weight of her slamming against his chest and he can feel the heat in his skin, a firestorm.

"Welcome back to the land of the free." She laughs and the noise is joyful and right in his ear echoing across his body. He can't help himself, his arms are around her pressing her briefly against him.

"Yeah yeah, if we don't hurry we'll be in the land of detention, I have Harris first."

"Should we run?" Boyd asks and there's a tilt to his mouth and a gleam in his eyes that Isaac knows and loves. Boyd is being dangerous and reckless.

He looks back down the alley he came from Derek is somewhere back there, no doubt listening and worrying.

"No, it's too bright out." Isaac tells them but they both know from his smirk that it's really a yes.

Erica grabs both their hands briefly and then pushes them both backwards, so that they teeter for a moment off balance.

"Last one there has to stay with Derek!" She yells behind her, her eyes lighting up in the shadow of the buildings and her smile is all teeth.

"No way!" He finds himself yelling after her, "I earned this!" He yells and takes off after all teeth and glow and blush.

"You guys are impossible!" Boyd yells after them, but there's the hint of a laugh in the deep rumble and Isaac can hear that he's running after them as well.


End file.
